


Ragnarok

by wordbending



Series: Undyne Appreciation Week [6]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Body Horror, Gen, Post-Undertale Neutral Route - Empress Undyne Ending, basically it's dark, canon characters getting murdered, extreme violence, multiple child deaths, use of nukes (seriously)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-07 00:43:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11612379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordbending/pseuds/wordbending
Summary: “We need someone to lead us, someone who will take the wishes in all our hearts, all our hopes and dreams, and fight to make them real!” Undyne shouted. “We need an Empress!”-----Empress Undyne goes to war.For Day Six ofUndyne Appreciation Week.





	Ragnarok

**Author's Note:**

> A sequel of sorts to [Vaterdammerung](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11518221), but that's not required reading.

“We need someone to lead us, someone who will take the wishes in all our hearts, all our hopes and dreams, and fight to make them real!” Undyne shouted. “We need an Empress!”

The monsters’ roars became louder, deafening.

* * *

Overnight, Empress Undyne turned the monsters into a well-oiled machine. She had them perform constant drills and exercises. She turned Alphys into her personal military R&D department, developing new weapons, harnessing limited amounts of Determination to make the monsters hardier. She pushed them to their limits and beyond, evolving the monsters into new forms - Froggits into Final Froggits, Loox into Astigmatisms, Moldsmals into Moldessas.

Everyone that could fight, fought. Only a few resisted or weren’t drafted, such as Gerson and Alphys. Empress Undyne didn’t push the issue for Gerson, who had refused to fight any further - she respected Gerson too much to draft him back into war, even if he wasn’t past his prime. For Alphys, well, she had a soft spot for her, then as much as ever.

Undyne refused to let Papyrus fight. For one thing, he was too innocent, too naive, to have to actually kill someone. But, more than that, she knew that if Papyrus fought, he would die. The humans would be strong, far stronger than anything he’d fought before, and Papyrus was too kind. He would try to make peace with the humans even if it killed him. She couldn't allow that to happen.

Sans merely slept. He slept more than ever - Undyne wasn’t sure she _could_ force him to fight.

All the while, they waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually, either a human would fall, or _the_ human would return to finish them off. Either way, no matter what happened, Undyne wanted them to be ready.

To prepare, Undyne filled the Ruins with monsters, turning it into a new base of operations. The strange house that was a clone of Asgore’s was cleared out, turned into nothing less than an armory - monsters manning windows, entire rooms filled with weapons. Monsters were sent to watch the hole leading to the surface, waiting to report if anyone fell down.

Six did, in the space of twenty years. Perhaps they were encouraged by the escape of one of them, when legends had said returning from the mountain was impossible. Perhaps they were just curious. Perhaps they had other motivations. But humans had never fallen so fast before.

To Undyne, it was a blessing. She couldn’t have asked for better proof that her cause was righteous.

* * *

When the seventh human fell, an Astigmatism reported it. Word spread quickly to the Empress, passing from the Ruins to Waterfall to Hotland to the throne room.

Empress Undyne was there in an instant, an army of monsters at her back. Nobody was left behind - if you could fight at all, the Empress recruited you. They would take no chances.

Empress Undyne, at last, reached the child, her battle armor gleaming. The child was pale, both their skin and from their fear. They cowered under the hole to the surface, holding their head in their hands, while monsters surrounded them. There was nowhere for them to go, nowhere for them to run.

“Human!” Undyne said to them. She didn’t feel the need to yell, but her voice rang loud and clear through the cave walls. The human looked at her, shaking from head to toe. “It is said that those who go to this mountain never return! And, yet, here you are, in front of us! The last obstacle to our dreams! The symbol of our hope! The angel of the prophecy, the one who will free us!”

The human said nothing. They merely curled into a ball. 

She tossed the human a shield. Even Undyne, the Empress, believed in an honorable battle. Killing an unarmed human was beneath her.

“We fight! And you… you will die!”

Undyne formed her spear and charged.

There was no fight. Only blood.

* * *

When the Empress took the seven souls into herself, she transformed. Her armor became covered in dangerous-looking spikes. A heart shape formed on her breastplate. Her gloves became white and spiked, with hearts on them. Her eye, the one normally covered by the eyepatch, glowed with a shining light.

But more than that happened. The armor fused with her body, becoming her skin - she could no longer take it off. Her long red hair, the last remnant of her former body, grew into a long mane. Her helmet, itself marked by dangerous spikes at its top, became her face, and her voice deepened into unrecognizability.

But none of that mattered, not to the Empress. All that mattered was that the power of the seven human souls allowed her to destroy the cursed barrier, and so she did, shattering it in a single blow. The monsters roared in victory, cheered, hugged one another, but their celebration was short-lived. They knew that they had to act fast, before the humans discovered their escape.

They moved rapidly, a single bloc, towards the nearby village. And, in less than a hour, they slaughtered every inhabitant, sparing nobody. Few monsters were lost - even the inherent power of the human soul, their Determination, was not enough to slow down the monsters' assault.

* * *

As news of the monsters' attack spread, the humans responded rapidly. They carried with them unusual weapons, one the monsters had rarely seen - guns, as they believed they were called.

In another world, perhaps, their weapons would have stopped the monsters in their tracks. They were powerful weapons, and the humans were powerful creatures, filled with the Determination to stop the army of monsters before another human could fall.

But, in this world, Empress Undyne was on the front lines. Filled with the power of the seven souls, filled with her own Determination, Undyne was nothing less than an army in her own right. Bullets passed through her, only for the wounds to instantly seal, her armor as gleaming as if nothing had happened at all. She threw spear and spear, formed portal after portal, easily devastating the human’s armies, covering the ground with rivers of blood and gore.

It was almost _too easy,_ Undyne thought. They really should have done this years and years ago - centuries ago. Asgore had been a fool to prefer peace.

* * *

The humans grew more bold, or perhaps more panicked. Where, before, they had sent small squads, now they threw their armies at them, their strongest weapons. They targeted everything they had at Empress Undyne - guns, grenades, missiles, mortars.

Nothing worked. The Empress was, truly and utterly, immortal.

So they sent new weapons. They sent strange machines from the sky, spraying down bullets and bombs over the monsters' armies. Undyne threw her spears into them, sending them crashing to the ground as fireballs.

They sent some kind of vehicle with a giant gun mounted on its top. Undyne took the blow for the monsters when it fired, launching its massive, explosive projectile straight at her. But she took her spear and, in one single throw, sent it straight through the barrel of the giant gun - it burst through the other side, taking out a platoon of soldiers behind it. The machine exploded, collapsing into a pile of metal and debris.

The Empress laughed.

**“IS THAT ALL?! IS THAT THE BEST YOU HUMANS HAVE TO OFFER ME?!”**

But there was no response.

* * *

“Undyne… I-I-I mean, Empress,” said Alphys in a break in the battle, bowing before her as she sat on her throne, surrounded by monsters.

 **“YES, ALPHYS?”** the Empress replied, in her softest possible voice, which was still enough to rattle the human dwelling they had taken over.

“I… I…” said Alphys, lowering her head, looking away from Empress Undyne.

The Empress was patient. She waited for Alphys to speak.

“I’m sorry!” Alphys shouted, lifting her head. She raised her hands, clenched into fists, in front of herself. “I… I can’t do this anymore! I can’t!”

The Empress couldn’t blink, but if she could, she would have.

“ **D… DO WHAT?”**

“T-this!” Alphys shouted again, waving her hands at everything around her - the monsters, in their evolved forms. The weapons. The Empress herself, on her throne. “A-all of this! These, that, _y-you!”_

Empress Undyne stood up. She started, slowly and unsteadily, to walk towards Alphys. Her heavy, armored footsteps were like thunder, reverberating throughout the room.

“ **ALPHYS…”**

Alphys started to cry, tears rolling down her cheeks. She tried to look at Empress Undyne - or, rather, at just Undyne - but she couldn’t.

“L-look… look at you. Just look at you. This isn’t r-right. This isn’t right.”

Undyne stood in front of her before crouching to one knee, lowering herself to Alphys’ height. Alphys slowly, carefully, reached up and caressed her armored cheek. Undyne felt nothing, no sense of warmth.

“I loved you.”

 _Loved,_ Undyne thought. _Loved. In the past tense._

**“YOU… YOU DID?”**

_I loved you too,_ Undyne wanted to say, but she couldn’t. An emotion, the first that wasn’t unending rage in a long, long time, passed through her.

It was regret.

She couldn’t cry. Not anymore. But she took a sharp, uneven breath.

“I’m quitting,” said Alphys firmly. “No more Determination. No more experiments. No more weapons. This has to stop.”

Undyne was speechless. She couldn’t think straight. She wanted to say something, to stop her, to argue with her, to tell her that no, this was necessary. This was their fight. This was their way to take back their home. This was their hope. But she couldn’t.

Alphys walked away, out of the building.

* * *

Eventually, the humans stopped sending their machines, their soldiers. Instead, they sent their strongest warriors. Or, perhaps, their strongest warrior sent themself.

It was a brown-skinned human with a bowl cut, wearing simple clothing, a blue t-shirt and brown pants. In their hands was a knife. Undyne almost didn't recognize who it was - they were so much taller than they'd ever been before. If it wasn't for the haircut, the lack of expression, Undyne might not have realized who they were at all.

The Empress came out to meet them.

 **“AT LAST,”** she snarled. **“AT LAST!** **_YOU!”_ **

Undyne formed her spear. The human braced themself, but they didn’t ready their knife. Their blank expression was unreadable, as always. But their body language, the tension in them even as they stood still as a statue, said more. They were prepared to stand their ground, whatever happened.

 **“NO RUNNING AWAY THIS TIME! THIS TIME, YOU** **_DIE_ ** **!”**

Empress Undyne charged.

But the human didn’t dodge. They made no effort. Undyne sent her spear through them in one decisive blow, and it was over. They fell limp to the ground and didn’t get up, their soul shattering.

The Empress felt a fury unlike anything she’d ever felt before. She roared in rage, beating her spear against the ground.

“ **THAT’S IT?! THAT’S IT???”**

No more humans came.

* * *

The power of the seven souls was waning, and it was beginning to take its toll. Empress Undyne felt her armored face one day and felt something like slime, her armor sinking into her hands, and she knew.

But, eventually, regardless, the monsters won. The entire country, a set of islands, had fallen, and the humans retreated entirely. Their strange machines, in the sky or on the ground, no longer appeared.

But the Empress was not satisfied. There was one thing missing, one thing that would make her feel victorious.

Alphys.

She had to find Alphys.

She had the monsters hunt for her, making lookouts, scouting. She even sent them into the Underground. But there was no signs of Alphys, not anywhere. Empress Undyne had destroyed her phone - a remnant of human influence, she believed - so she had no way of contacting Alphys anymore. She doubted Alphys would even answer.

The Empress began to search on her own. She broke into Alphys’ old laboratory in Hotland, which led her only to clues. The bag of dog food, which she’d never understood why Alphys had, was gone. But Alphys herself hadn’t appeared.

So she waited. She sat in the lab for days, weeks, hoping Alphys herself would just appear miraculously out of nowhere.

And indeed, by some miracle, she did. From the bathroom.

When Alphys saw Undyne, she jumped. She turned back to the bathroom, as if planning to run back in, but Undyne stood to her feet, her armor clanging noisily.

“ **AL… ALPHYS! WAIT! PLEASE.”**

“Nope,” said Alphys. “No. Not doing this. No way.”

**“ALPHYS… I’M DYING.”**

Alphys paused. Slowly, she turned towards Undyne, her expression haggard.

“What?”

**“I’M DYING. THE HUMAN SOULS ARE LOSING THEIR POWER. I CAN’T… I CAN’T HOLD MYSELF TOGETHER.”**

Slowly, Alphys turned around. Undyne took an unsteady step forward, towards her, but her foot was stuck. She looked down and realized it was melting.

“What?” Alphys repeated. “No… no way. Your Determination… you’re so strong, Undyne, how could it…”

“ **HEY, WE’VE ALL GOT TO GO EVENTUALLY, RIGHT?”** Undyne gurgled, laughing bitterly.

Alphys ran over to her. Just like before, she caressed Undyne’s armored cheek, but this time, slime ran across her fingers. When she removed her hand, the slime stuck to it, staying in the air before fading into dust.

“I knew it. I knew this was…”

Alphys started to cry. She started to rub furiously at her eyes, getting tears all over her coat, as she tried to stop the tears from flowing.

“I k-k-knew… this w-was… stupid. We… we shouldn’t have…”

**“NO.”**

Alphys glared at her.

“ _No?_ L-look at you!”

But almost instantly, her anger faded. She took one look at Undyne’s armored face and her own face fell.

“Look at you.”

“ **IT’S… IT’S FINE. THE MONSTERS ARE FREE. THIS IS GOOD. THIS IS WHAT I WANTED.”**

“It’s not… it’s not what _I_ wanted!”

Undyne suddenly lost her balance, falling forward. She realized, belatedly, that her leg - fused to the floor - had fallen off.

**“ALPHYS… I’M SORRY.”**

“Don’t…” Alphys said. “Don’t.”

**“STAY WITH ME. PLEASE. WHILE I… WHILE I DIE. PLEASE JUST STAY HERE... WITH ME.”**

Alphys sniffled, but she nodded.

“OK. OK.”

And she hugged Undyne around the waist, covering herself in Undyne’s rapidly melting body. Undyne’s face dripped onto Alphys’ head.

**“THANK YOU.”**

* * *

In the end, the monsters lost. Without their Empress, they were hopeless. Directionless. Vulnerable. Weak. But even if they were at their strongest, fueled with determination to win or to survive, it wouldn’t have been enough.

The humans sent new weapons, new machines. Strange, giant boats that floated on the water off shore. Underwater machines, shaped like sleek bullets. More flying machines.

And, from them, they sent devastation.

Missiles were launched from the boats and the underwater machines, sleek, long, white missiles. Huge bombs, bigger than anything the monsters had ever seen, were dropped from the flying machines.

And, when all of the hundreds of bombs and missiles hit the ground, the Earth was split into two.

Buildings evaporated. Trees were obliterated. The ground was blasted with enormous craters, ruining the landscape.

And the monsters were all turned, instantly, into dust.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks as usual to Mado and Skirmisher2048 for betaing this fic! They were a huge help in getting it to a point I was happy with <3


End file.
